As time goes by
by dajwoh
Summary: A one shot about Buffy and Faith post Chosen.


Authors note: So I'm not completely satisfied with the end result. I had hopes this would turn out into a much longer and deeper one shot but my muse just didn't want to cooperate. So instead of leaving it incomplete without posting it, I give you what I ended up with. Enjoy.

Some spelling mistakes were pointed out to me, which was bugging me so much that I had to fix it.

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It's hard to believe that today marks the day, when it's been 4 years since we left the crater of Sunnydale behind. What an amazing couple of years it has been.

Then

I walked down the aisle of the bus towards the very end where Buffy was seated, leaning against the window and she didn't utter a word as I sat down next to her. The look in her eye was something of a mix between dreamy and serene. At first I thought that she didn't notice me sitting next to her but a few moments later she lifts her head from the glass and shifts to her left and places her head on my shoulder and closes her eyes as she reaches over for one of my hands and clasps it with her own. My heart is going crazy in my chest and a smile is creeping upon my lips. As I lay my head against hers and close my eyes and I just know without seeing her beautiful face that she is smiling too.

That was the beginning of the story of me and Buffy, at least the beginning of our relationship as more then friends. After countless hours of talking and surprising little screaming and not a single punch we decided to leave the past behind us. We were both so tired of all the fighting, the anger and mostly the denial. After our long talk we shared our first kiss and I knew I never wanted to be with anyone but her for the rest of my days. We decided to keep our new relationship status to ourselves for a while to bask in our inability to keep our lips and hands off each other. That lasted a whole month before Dawn stomped into Buffy's room without knocking and caught us in the middle of a heated make out session. I remember laughing so hard at picture of my girl both blushing and shrieking.

I remember the first time we made love. It was certainly a first for me, before her it was just sex or fucking, anything but love. The next day she woke up before me. Her gently caressing my face was what woke me up. Until that moment I had never felt so content in my life. After I opened my eyes and laid eyes on the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and we just lay there looking at each other for a few minutes before she breaks the spell we're under and sits up and a strange look flashes past her eyes. I didn't take me long to realize that she was shaking because she was crying. I looked at her with concern and a frown upon my face.

"Baby, why are you crying?" I asked her as I sit up next to her and slowly run my hand down her back in an attempt to comfort her.

"I don't want you to leave" she tells me in a whisper. It takes me a few moments to understand what she's talking about. I always leave, I never stay the night, it's just better that way. But spending the night with Buffy, I never once even thought about leaving. So I turn towards her, I wipe a falling tear away from her cheek and I shuffle forward and place one leg behind her back and the other under her bent knee and gently tug her towards me.

When I have her against me, my arms go around her waist and I tell her "I don't ever want to leave you"

"You don't?" she asks me in such a small and vulnerable voice it makes my heart hurt.

"No, I'd never leave you Buffy. Not again. I love you, always have." I tell her with a shaky voice and I tentatively place a loving kiss on her neck. I loosen my hold on her waist and she leans in to me as I cradle her head to my chest and a wide smile breaks out on my lips as I hear her whisper out the words "I love you too, Fai." I finally did something right.

A couple of months after the fall of Sunnydale we decided that it was time to step back from the whole slayer business and let the newbies handling keeping the world safe from the darkness. It started with Buffy wanting to step back and moving out of the new Slayer central. I have to say I wasn't happy about it to start out, but where Buffy goes I go. So we bought a little house about half an hour away from the slayer central. Close enough to go for visits and have people over but not close enough to have them over all the time.

I was happy about us having our own place but I wasn't so thrilled about stepping back from slaying. Buffy never really asked me or demanded me to but I felt that it would be a good time for me to step down too and focus on my life with Buffy, a life that I had dreamed and hoped for since I first met her.

Buffy was thrilled at the fact that she finally got to have the normal life she always wanted. Sure we both missed slaying with it being such a big part of our lives but we still saw the gang often enough and on occasion we helped out with tactical advice.

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do. I knew I still wanted to help people and try to redeem for the bad shit I've done but I don't know I will ever do enough good to make up for it.

So I became a nurse, more specifically an ER nurse. I took a lot of hard work, a lot of late nights and a whole lot of swearing to get the studying done. I was never much for learning. I'm not sure I would have actually finished if it wasn't for Buffy's unconditional love and support during that time.

There's always action in the ER, never a dull moment. Perfect for someone like me who likes to get down and dirty. And I don't mean to brag but I'm damn good at what I do. And the perks of being a slayer has come in handy more than a couple of times. Some things that I have seen in that place shocked even me with everything I have seen in my days. Buffy decided to keep doing what she did for a living in Sunnydale, counselor. She did some extra courses to get certified and it came real easy for her, she's so smart that girl of mine.

After we had been together for about 2 years we decided to get married. Can you believe it? Me, married? I have to be honest when she first brought it up I kind of freaked out. But I didn't take off running like I might have back in the day. I could see the flash of sadness in her eyes when I didn't say anything in reply and my eyes wide and a look she must have thought was panic at the thought of us getting hitched. When thinking about that moment afterwards I realize I don't think what I was feeling was panic or maybe a tiny bit but mostly it was shock and a lot of awe. That Buffy Summers, wanted to marry ME of all people. I quickly flashed her such a big smile with dimples and all agreeing to get married. She squealed so loud she got my ears ringing before straddling my lap and attaching herself to me for a solid 15 minutes.

I never thought I would end up getting married. That I would be in a in a loving committed relationship with someone as amazing as her who actually wanted that with me. The next day I took Dawn with me to get a ring for Buffy. Nothing to fancy but something to show her that I wanted to be her wife. We got married shortly after that. A very nice and simple ceremony, us both wearing dresses. I really must love her to be wearing a dress for her, wedding day or not. We had just a few guests, some nice food and some champagne and we were off to Hawaii for our honeymoon as Mrs. and Mrs. Lehane, courtesy of Giles who paid for our trip as a wedding gift.

Now

I come home from a long shift at the hospital, my first day back for almost two months.

"Honey, I'm home" I call as I take my shoes off and let out a laugh and shake my head at how domestic that sounded. I peek my head into the kitchen in search of Buffy.

"Honey?" I call again as I make my way into the living room and I stop short at what I see. There she is, lying on the couch slightly turned towards the back of the couch. Our three week old baby girl sleeping on her chest in Buffy's safe arms. My heart swells with all the love I feel for my girls sleeping so peacefully. The TV is on low as I reach for the remote and turn it off. I walk over to the couch and kneel down next to it. Our little girl is the perfect mix between the two of us. She has thick brown hair, the start of deep dimples like mine and my nose. Buffy's cute little mouth and amazing hazel eyes. She's starting to wake up and I gently stroke her hair. The second she starts moving, Buffy's eyes flutter open. She turns her head and sees me next to the couch.

"Hi" she greets me in a sleepy voice.

"Hey baby" I say as I give her a kiss and lean over to kiss the top of my daughter's head "hey baby" I greet her too and smile at the double innuendo. I reach over and take her from Buffy as she sits up on the couch stretching and yawning wide. I give my little girl a big kiss on the cheek and just smile at her as I sit down next to my wife.

"Were you a good girl for mommy today, Lily?" I ask her and I swear I see her smile. I know it's probably gas, I read that in one of the baby books Buffy made me read. But I don't care, it sure looked like a smile to me and it's an amazing feeling, seeing this little copy of yourself that our love created, smiling back at you. I hear a whimper from around my feet and our little German Sheppard puppy tries in vain to get up on the couch. Buffy giggles at the little one's attempts before she swoops it up and plants it in her lap. "You feeling left out, Dax?" she asks him as she pats the puppy's furry little head earning her a little bark.

The story of how our baby girl came to be, started with this new big bad in town. Willow told us about it one day when she came over for lunch. Even though we are out of the game, they still keep us in the loop when something bigger than the regular vamp made an appearance. They wanted us to be prepared in case anyone would try to go for us, the original slayers.

We found out a few days later that this latest demon wanted to strip all the slayers of their powers including us, what else is new right? Willow cast some kind of protection spell on us, I didn't really ask about it. As long as Buffy was safe, that's all I really cared about.

A couple of weeks later Willow came over with this really guilty look on her face. She told us that she read up the spell she cast on us and it was very specific as in she could only cast it on someone close to her, someone she had a strong bond with this person she cast it on for it to be at its strongest. This we knew before she cast the spell. So we were basically protected by love whilst the spell was active. This is where the guilty look comes in, what the Wicca had missed was that if we made love whilst the spell was active and Buffy and I made love almost every night like we always have, our love could create a child. Buffy had been feeling sick the last couple of days and the realization hit us both at the same time.

After a quick stop at the drugstore we found out that we were having a baby.

Buffy was probably worried about my reaction but I was beyond happy and I couldn't stop the tears of happiness from falling. Buffy was probably more freaked than me seeing as she was the one pregnant. We talked about having kids before we got married and we both wanted them so us having a baby, a child our love created was the best thing that could possible happen for us.

The spell had done the same for Willow, who like Buffy had been feeling sick for a couple of days and discovered she was pregnant. But why Buffy got pregnant instead of me and Willow got pregnant instead of Kennedy, we never did find out.

I have to pinch myself once in a while to make sure I'm not dreaming. That I do get to have my happily ever after, till death do us apart with the love of my life and our beautiful baby girl. We were blessed enough to have more kids as the years went on. We had Willow help us with casting the same spell that helped us create Lily. Buffy had our next girl, Audrey. Then I was the one who got pregnant and we got Mackenzie and last but certainly not least I had our twin girls Jennifer and Zoe.

We planned on having one or maybe two more after we had Lily but ended up with five. The twins were certainly a surprise but I couldn't love them more if I tried. I'm in for a crazy ride with all our girls running around keeping me and Buffy on our toes, but in the end I wouldn't change it for the world.

The end.

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Please do let me know what you think.


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